Dmitry Pavlov

Dmitry Pavlov (23 October 1897-22 July 1941) was a General of the Army of the Soviet Union who fought in World War I, the Russian Civil War, Spanish Civil War, Winter War, and World War II.

Biography
Dmitry Pavlov was born on 23 October 1897 in Vonyukh in the Kostroma Governorate in the Russian Empire (present-day Pavlovo, Kostroma Oblast, Russia). Pavlov was an enlisted man during World War I and served in the Red Army after 1919, fighting in the Russian Civil War. In 1928 he left the Frunze Military Academy as the commander of mechanized and cavalry units, and he moved to Spain during the 1930s to assist the Republican forces. He commanded a Soviet armored brigade during the Spanish Civil War as well as leading advisors. Unlike most officers who were sent to Spain, Pavlov was not purged and he became the leader of tank and armored car units of the Red Army after the war. Pavlov served in the Winter War and clashes with Japan in 1940 and was made the leader of the Belorussian Special Military District that year. He defended Bialystok-Minsk from Nazi Germany during the 1941 Operation Barbarossa invasion of Russia, but after a defeat there, he and all of the Soviet generals in the city were executed by Stalin by firing squad for incompetence.